


Vertically Challenged

by ideserveyou



Category: Arthur of the Britons
Genre: Humour, M/M, ant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-19
Updated: 2010-08-19
Packaged: 2017-10-11 03:57:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/108120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideserveyou/pseuds/ideserveyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I was challenged to write something from the point of view of 'an ant on the bedpost'. So here it is!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vertically Challenged

She is a small and curious individual, and she has wandered far from home.

Lured into this big, smoky, dusty cavern by the irresistible scent of roast boar, she has eaten her fill and picked up a big piece to take back to the soldiers too.

But she can't find her way out.

 

 

It must be this way – over a fallen tree and between two distant trunks, through this dead straw and rushes and… maybe up this tree here?

She starts to climb.

 

The bark is slippery and polished, perhaps by the passage of many feet. There are strange scents deposited on it. Maybe from a higher vantage point she may be able to work out the way home.

She passes a branching point that leads to a big, flat, horizontal branch that smells strongly of sheep, decides not to take it. Up and up she goes, across a ledge and around an awkward overhang, then plodding steadily on across a rounded surface she reaches the highest point.

 

This is a very strange sort of tree.

 

She cranes her neck and strains every sense to catch a hint of the smell of the Home Tunnel.

Nothing.

 

She becomes aware that the tree is shaking, although there is no wind. She clings on a little tighter, peers over her shoulder.

 

Down there, on the big flat branch, are two of the creatures who live in this cavernous Nest. At least, they look similar in the dim light, although the ones she's seen before were vertical, and these two have shed their body coverings except for a few fragments on their heads and in the vertices of their too-few limbs.

 

Perhaps they are Moulting? No, they would be hiding underneath a stone in that case. And they seem to be moving vigorously, with no hint of Moult lassitude.

Or perhaps these creatures lie down to Feed? But her antennae tell her that there is no food here, unless they are Feeding on each other. Their mouths are certainly busy.

Maybe they use those strange appendages on their front limbs to Groom each other? The larger and lighter coloured of the two is passing its appendages through the other's dark head covering.

Or to Communicate? The darker, smaller creature is running its front appendages repeatedly over the surface of the other one's body, stroking out a complex message.

Finally they roll together into the centre of the branch, and the dark one joins itself to the golden one by means of a small structure she'd previously overlooked. Perhaps it's somehow increased in size since she began to observe them. At any rate she understands now what this behaviour is.

 

They must be on their Nuptial Flight. But it's the noisiest and least airborne Nuptial Flight she's ever witnessed.

And she cannot for the life of her work out which one of them is going to lay the eggs.

 

The shaking has diminished and it's safe to climb down now. She turns to begin the descent of the tree.

What strange creatures these are. Ants are much easier to understand.

 

Aha, and by the smell of it the Home Tunnel is this way…


End file.
